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Accenture Walks Back Its ‘Unwavering’ DEI Commitment

In its annual report released on October 10, 2024, Accenture wrote, “We have an unwavering commitment to inclusion and diversity.” Less than four months later, Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said in a memo to employees that the company has canceled four DEI-related goals and programs.  Here’s the recent timeline of Accenture’s DEI policy from 2017 until now. The State of Accenture’s DEI Policy Department Status: Active…

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Amid DEI Pullback, Meijer Expands Diverse Supplier Program

In early February, Meijer released a press release stating that the company “reaffirmed its commitment today to growing its selection of Black-owned brands.”  The supplier inclusion program at Meijer started in 2021 and has grown the number of Black-owned brands by 35% since then. Meijer joins a growing list of companies that support DEI in recent months. Here’s everything you need to know about Meijer’s…

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Google Continues Its DEI Rollback (A Multi-Year Process)

Fiona Cicconi, Chief People Office at Alphabet (parent company of Google), sent an internal email to staff on Wednesday. Reuters first reported on the story. In the email, Google announced that is has stopped its diversity-hiring goals.  But this is just the latest step in Google’s steady retreat from DEI that started in 2023. Here’s the timeline. The State of Google’s DEI Policy Department Status: Active Department…

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33 Colleges & Universities Cutting DEI Programs

This is our latest research on the evolving dynamics of DEI. We’ve covered the companies ending DEI, others defending DEI, and the current DEI policies for every Fortune 100. Now, we look into the world of higher education.  In this report, we cover US colleges and universities that have reduced or eliminated their DEI programs. Full list | Downloadable spreadsheet | Laws impacting colleges |…

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Report: Every Fortune 100 DEI Program Analyzed [Jan 2025]

The ideas behind “Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion” (DEI) in the workplace date back to the 1960s. But the actual phrase likely first appeared in the 2000s and the public didn’t take notice until 2022. More specifically, Google Trends shows that the topic “Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion” wasn’t searched until the third week of February 2022. In just three short years, DEI fully embedded itself into…

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Caterpillar Resource Industries Mandates 5-Day RTO

UPDATE: Caterpillar Inc. (enterprise-wide) mandated 5-day RTO on April 9 with a start date of June 2. Read the full memo here. I received an email from a Caterpillar employee stating this: “Caterpillar Resource Industries has mandated 5 day/week return to office for all employees beginning Feb 1, 2025. It will be closely tracked and employees that do not comply will receive a ‘does not meet…

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Amazon’s 6th RTO Mandate Loses Steam [DEC 2024]

On September 16, 2024, Amazon issued its sixth publicly-shared return-to-office (RTO) policy. But on December 16, 2024, Business Insider reported that Amazon may not have enough space for some employees in some locations.  Here’s everything you need to know about Amazon’s RTO policy.   Latest Amazon RTO Policy September 2024: According to CNBC, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent a new memo instructing corporate employees to…

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16 Major Companies Experiencing RTO Pushback

Many RTO announcements are met with public employee backlash. And a few recent surveys show the same. A Gartner survey of 2,080 knowledge worker employees from May through June 2023 found the following: Intent to stay among knowledge employees surveyed was 8% lower with strict RTO mandates Intent to stay among high-performing employees surveyed was 16% lower Intent to stay among millennial employees surveyed was…

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AT&T Mandates 5-Day RTO Starting In January 2025

This post was originally written on November 4, 2024. It was updated on November 5, 2024 after an email from an AT&T employee. Rumors have started circling on forums this week. AT&T most likely started calling executives to return to the office for five days per week. It’s unclear whether that has already taken effect or will take effect on January 2, 2025. I have…

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60 Headquarters Have Left San Francisco Since 2020

Once the hub for tech companies in the world, San Francisco is now facing a wave of businesses leaving the Bay Area. An astonishing 35% of San Francisco’s workforce works primarily from home, according to a 2021 NBC Bay Area report. That’s the highest among all US cities where data was collected. And with workers staying home or moving out of San Francisco altogether, the…